00:00My ambition is to change this country.
00:10No concentrated level of power,
00:15no elite, no gatekeeper can prevent me
00:19from doing everything I can,
00:21waking up every day in service of the working class.
00:24The last thing before we go to the students,
00:26because I would be drawn and quartered if I did not say this.
00:31There are a lot of people who would like you to run for president in 2028.
00:46Apparently some of them are here.
00:48And there are people who,
00:50there are others who would like you to run for the United States Senate.
00:55Senator Schumer's up in 2028.
01:06I don't know. It sounded like even more.
01:09Should we do it to New York or to other parts of the country?
01:14How many would like AOC to stay in Congress?
01:18See?
01:21They want you to make a move.
01:23Yeah.
01:25What say you about all of this?
01:27You know, it's funny because in this op-ed
01:30that Jeff Bezos paid for in the Washington Post,
01:37there was this line that you had mentioned earlier about,
01:40well, as a potential 2028 contender, X, Y, Z.
01:46And in the context of that, it was very clear this was a veiled threat.
01:50Right?
01:51So the elite saying,
01:54if you want this job,
01:58you just stepped out of line.
02:00And we want you to know where the real power is.
02:05And it's in the, it's in the modern day barons who own the post
02:10and own the algorithms.
02:11And we're gonna, we'll make an example out of you.
02:16And what's funny about that is that they assume that my ambition is positional.
02:24They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat.
02:30And my ambition is way bigger than that.
02:34Um, my ambition is to change this country.
02:39And...
02:52And...
02:53We have seats, elected officials, come and go.
02:57But...
02:58Single-payer healthcare is forever.
03:02A living wage is forever.
03:04Workers' rights are forever.
03:06Women's rights, all of that.
03:07And so anyways, the way, but to, to...
03:10A finer point to your question is that when you aren't attached,
03:16right?
03:17When you haven't been, like, fantasizing about being this or that
03:21since the time you were seven years old.
03:24Um...
03:26It...
03:27Is tremendously liberating.
03:30Because I get to wake up every day and say,
03:33how am I gonna meet the moment?
03:35And conditions change radically all the time.
03:39So I make my response less to an attachment
03:44to some positional, like, you know, title or position,
03:49and working backwards from there.
03:52But I make decisions by waking up in the morning,
03:55looking out the window, and observing the conditions of this country.
03:59And saying, what move or what decision can I make today
04:03that is gonna get us closer to that future,
04:07stronger, faster, better than yesterday?
04:11And those conditions, you know, I think a lot of times, like,
04:15I remember the first time I walked onto the Senate floor.
04:19I remember the first time I walked onto the Senate floor,
04:20I was a freshman, uh, I was a freshman in the House.
04:24And a fun fact is that House members are allowed to go onto the Senate,
04:29but Senate members are not allowed to go into the House
04:32unless they're allowed in and invited.
04:33And, um, and so I had walked onto the Senate floor.
04:37And, um, I looked around.
04:42And I was like, wow, it's, everyone here thinks they're gonna be president.
04:49And they are making decisions from that place.
04:56And I don't want to make decisions from a place of what's in it for me.
05:04I want to make decisions from a place of how are we gonna change the country.
05:11And so, um, that's in response to people and mass.
05:18It's in response to the numbers that we have in the House and in the Senate.
05:21I count votes, I build caucuses, I help elect responsible and principled people,
05:29that, that, and I try to decouple our political system from money and politics.
05:34And so my decisions come from a very substantive place.
05:38And, you know, that's, that's what goes into weighing it.
05:43And the great thing about that is that no billionaire can stop that.
05:47No concentrated, uh, level of power, no elite, no gatekeeper can prevent me from doing everything I can,
05:58waking up every day in service of the working class.
06:01And I can do that in the House.
06:03I can do it in the Senate.
06:04I can do it from, uh, uh, the White House.
06:07I can do it from a shack in upstate New York, chopping wood and, and be in a burnout.
06:14Like, I can do it from anywhere.
06:15Wow, that's one I didn't even, that was one I didn't even think of.
06:20Well, if it makes you feel any better and if you find this more liberating,
06:23I don't think you were going to get Jeff Bezos's endorsement anyway.
06:27Shucks.
06:29So...
06:31Subscribe to One India and never miss an update.
06:35Download the One India app now.
06:38Bye.
06:39Bye.
Comments